Slot backs under fire Liverpool star following back-to-back defeats

Liverpool boss Arne Slot admits Ibrahima Konate has been error prone of late but says that does not mean he has played poorly.

Konate has come in for criticism following defeats against Crystal Palace and Galatasaray but Slot has backed his under fire defender ahead of the game against Chelsea.

“If you’re losing a game of football, it doesn’t help if you lose the ball a few times very easily,” Slot said. “He’s been one of them, definitely not the only one, because against Galatasaray I think apart from the penalty they maybe had three or four moments all from us losing a very simple ball without any pressure.

“That happened to him once in the Crystal Palace game and once against Galatasaray so if you lose a game of football, there’s so much focus on that moment and all of a sudden the 90 minutes has been very poor which is not the way I analyse a game, especially not afterwards where I have the time to watch it one more time and see what we did well and what we did wrong.

“But in the last two games it’s been obvious and clear that we’ve made a few errors, not only him but also others, that we’re not used to. If you do things we’re not used to and lose a game of football, normally he and the other ones, the manager, gets criticised.”